Swamy to file a case against British Museum to regain centuries old Saraswathi idols

Statement of Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Janata Party President made on June 4, 2010

I propose to file a case in the British Court in London against the British Museum to recover two Sarasvati idols stolen by the British Imperialists more than a hundred years ago from a sacred temple in Dhar in Madhya Pradesh.

Statement of Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Janata Party President made on June 4, 2010

The Janata Party will contest a large number of Assembly seats when the Vidhan Sabha elections take place next year in TN and Kerala. It will field candidates on the basis of an alternative ideology of Inclusive Hindutva and National Renaissance.

The party will seek the blessings of the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha, and the support of the RSS and VHP in the elections.

Statement of Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Janata Party President made on June 4, 2010

The Dravidian Movement has been defeated on all these agenda items. India has become free and DMK has eaten humble pie by swearing by the Indian Constitution, 42% of the Tamil words today are from Sanskrit, Karunanidhi's own name and that of his grand children are mostly Sanskrit, and one of wives goes regularly to temples and the Kanchi Mutt for blessing and prasadams.

Karunanidhi's last stand was in the Sethusamudram Project, but he has been defeated in the Supreme Court. Ravana it now turns out-- reading Kamban Ramayana-- was a pious Shiva worshipping Brahmin. Thus, except for enriching himself by shameless corrupt, Karunanidhi's political life has been a total failure. He must now chant "Ram Ram" to go painlessly, just as Ravana did when his end came.

Since the BJP–led NDA rule ended in 2004, there has been a drastic fall in the number of RSS shakhas across the country — by almost 10,000. TOI-CREST finds out what’s going wrong with the hard right.

For Shant Swarup, 45, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) volunteer since childhood, keeping the shakha (the basic Sangh unit) afloat in Gyan Khand-I of Indirapuram (an affluent suburb of Ghaziabad) is a daily struggle. Every morning when he sets foot in a public park near his house, his foremost concern is how to get the quorum for the conduct of the shakha. More often than not, he is the first to reach the park while his colleagues, not more than half a dozen in number, start trickling in much after the scheduled time of 6.00 am.

Even the shakha’s head teacher, Ranjeev Sharma, a Delhi lawyer who has the responsibility of carrying the saffron flag to the venue and back, turns up late at times. The attendance in the shakha hardly goes beyond seven members, 16 less than what is generally considered an ideal number. The shakha has not even appointed a gat nayak — a functionary who is supposed to wake up swayamsewaks in the morning and bring them to the park. Nor has it appointed gan shikshak (group teacher), who trains the members in a shakha.

Swarup, also a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national executive, is pained at the waning interest in the shakhas. The twoyear-old shakha in Gyan Khand-I was closed last year when he had to shift to Hathras (UP), his birth place, for a few months to try for an MP ticket. On his return a couple of months back, he somehow revived it, but is agitated about the poor turnout. “People are no longer dedicated to shakhas. Television and internet are the biggest culprits. The RSS’s association with the BJP and casteist politics of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) have also driven people further from the shakhas,” Swarup grumbles. The status of Gyan Khand-I shakha is not the only factor that makes Swarup cynical about the spread of what many refer to as Hindutva factories.

He has witnessed similar developments in Purdil Nagar, near Hathras. “The local shakha, where my father and uncle trained, shut down many years ago. Four shakhas have gone bust in other parts of Indirapuram in recent times,” he informs.

In and around Ghaziabad, the RSS has lost 10 shakhas in the last few years. A senior activist, Shyam Mohan, attributes the decrease to consumerism, migration and politics. In Delhi , the latest count of shakhas is 1,486, down from 1,600.

Mathura has fared no better. Santosh Aggarwal , 50, a resident, who stopped going to a shakha in the ’80s, asserts that the dip in the popularity is partly because of politicisation of the Sangh and the inability to grab the attention of the generation next.

According to Vagish Issar, a member the RSS’s Delhi media cell, the count of shakhas in the country stood at 39,823 in 27,089 places in January this year, down from 43,905 shakhas at 30,015 places in March, 2009. In 2005-06 , after the six-year long rule of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the number had crossed 51,000. Clearly, the pull of power worked in favour of the RSS. Since then, the pull-out from power has cut down the number by 10,000.

Manmohan Vaidya, head of the RSS publicity wing, says people are finding it difficult to spare time for the shakhas. He also blames the closure of shakhas on RSS’s other movements like the Vishwa Mangal Go Gram Yatra, a nationwide campaign for protection of village economy and cattle wealth undertaken by the RSS in 2009. “We’ve had seven movements in the last few months. The volunteers were obviously busy attending them,” he says, forecasting an increase in the number in the next couple of years.

Seshadri Chari, a swayamsewak, and former editor of Organizer, the weekly publication of the RSS, blames changing lifestyles and increasing urbanisation for the trend. He remembers the enthusiasm of swayamsewaks in the past. He says he, along with other sevaks, could start a shakha almost anywhere.

There are about 35 social groups working under the Sangh umbrella. This includes Ekal Vidalayas, the over 27,000 single-teacher schools run in villages, and Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, which works for welfare of the tribal people. The RSS expects the schools and the Ashram to add significantly to the numbers in the next few years.

The RSS is trying to keep up though. It has embraced technology, and is present on popular social networking sites, like Facebook, Orkut, You Tube, and even has established e-shakhas. In Bangalore, the Sangh has successfully penetrated the IT industry and is dispatching software professionals for service in sewa bastis (slums), hospitals and other areas. In Delhi too, the Sangh is running about two dozen IT shakhas, or IT milans, which are held on Sundays.

Readers' opinions

gspalIndia

I have an idea to popularize these RSS Shakhas. How about a fitness program early every morning along with martial arts for children, women, men and all. After that their discourse. Since they have also entered the IT sector, then how about providing training and home-based jobs for their volunteers? For example they can source transcription work.

Meetings, marches or `morchas', Ayodhya has seen them all. However, this one event is making the temple town a little wary. Even as VHP veterans play down the coming five-day conclave of the Prabandhan Samiti starting July 12 in Karsevakpuram, as a mere follow-up event to the Kumbh resolution approved by assembled `dharmacharyas' (seers), others citing history, sound unconvinced.

Last such meet of the VHP in Ayodhya took place 18 years ago -- in September 1992 -- just three months ahead of Babri demolition. Now, with the Allahabad high court judgment on the demolition case likely to be pronounced within three months, their concern may not entirely be exaggerated.

Two hundred fifty delegates from national, regional, and local levels are expected to participate in the conclave, says Sharad Sharma the spokesperson and in-charge of VHP in Ayodhya. "The meet after such a long gap will chart out future strategy on Ram Mandir movement, primarily the delegates will mull over how to make the Hanumat Shakti Jagran a nation-wide movement to invoke the power of lord Hanuman a success," he told TOI.

The mass awakening by recitation of Hanuman Chalisa for 11 consecutive times, coupled with yajna and `havan' could only be a precursor to actual construction, says Sharma. "We have a mammoth task ahead and it needs proper planning and mobilisation," he added. The meeting will also discuss problem of forced conversion and measures to protect Ganga and Gau, he added. Sources however hint that the listed agenda leaves much unsaid. The Babri case in the high court is nearing completion and the judgment is likely to be pronounced latest by October. The saffron camp is gearing up for the finals -- either way, and the supreme body will have the blue print ready.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secretary Varun Gandhi on Saturday addressed a public meeting in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras district through a mobile phone after the state government did not allow him to attend the rally, a party leader said.

"The permission for the rally was taken well in advance. Hours before the public meeting was to start, the district authorities informed us that Varunji will not be allowed to participate in the meeting due to security reasons," BJP legislator Yashpal Chauhan told reporters in Hathras, some 350 km from Lucknow.

"When we conveyed the information to Varunji, he decided to address the rally on the mobile phone from Delhi. He called up on a mobile, which was kept in front of the mike," he added.

"We know very well that the move to not allow Varunji to participate in the rally was taken at the behest of the state government. Actually, Chief Minister Mayawati fears that our young leader would unmask her real face before the masses...It was a politically motivated move on the directions of the chief minister," Chauhan told IANS.

However, district authorities refuted the allegations by the BJP leader.

"It's totally baseless. We did nothing to stop Varun from holding the rally," District Magistrate M.M. Khan said over the phone.

No Sindhi Hindu anywhere in the world claims to have received any such divine diktat to build a shrine dedicated to Jhulelal, the community’s presiding deity. But thanks to the efforts of a group of identity-conscious Sindhis, a ‘holy city’ on the lines of Mecca, Vatican City, Jerusalem and Amritsar is set to rise in the barren environs of Kutch in Gujarat.

The barren Kutch landscape will thus within a few years metamorphose into the huge Jhulelal Temple complex which will house, besides the temple, a meditation centre , an auditorium, a museum, dharmshalas and an arts and handicrafts centre. Here, Sindhis from across the globe can perform a variety of rituals, including baptism, birthday celebrations and pind daan (prayers for the dead). The dhoti-kurta-clad, Gandhi topi-sporting Joshi has reason to believe that Kutch could house the ultimate pilgrimage place for Sindhis in India. “Till the earthquake of 1819, the waters of the Sindhu would swell during the monsoon and lap this shore. Even today, I smell the fragrance of Sindh here,” says the 81-year-old who, despite his advanced age and a mercilessly May sun, took a stroll down the identified and marked land with us.

The Kutch site has the potential to grow into a major place of pilgrimage also because it is sandwiched between two ancient Hindu religious places, the Shiva temple of Koteshwar and Narayan Sarovar, one of the sacred water bodies dedicated to Lord Vishnu, which also finds mention in the Bhagwat Puran. “Even non-Sindhi Hindus who visit Koteshwar and Narayan Sarovar will drop in for a darshan of Jhulelal , as our temple will be just 1.5 km away from both the sacred sites,” explains Lachchman Bhatia, the project promoters’ pointsperson in Ahmedabad.

Necessity, in this case, is the mother of reinvention. Hindu almanacs, popularly called panchangs across the country, are headed for fundamental changes, with the baby steps taken by a reformist group in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. In time to come, there may be uniformity or at least agreement on certain almanac notings among the 40-odd almanac-makers in the country. Muhurats for weddings and other auspicious occasions may be fixed during the so-called inauspicious monsoon months, and certain all-India festivals may fall on the same date in a year instead of regional variations that now confuse people.

Finding common ground between the numerous Hindu almanacs, almost all of them sporting up to half a dozen different versions for local populations, is a daunting task. Also a rather avant-garde one, when its initiator happens to be one of the oldest religious institutions, the Shankaracharya—in this case, the Shankaracharya of Karveer peeth in Kolhapur, Srividya Nrusinh Bharati. Five of the eight leading almanac-makers in Maharashtra deliberated on this issue last week. Their report will be placed at the all-Shankaracharya meeting later this month at Kancheepuram, to enable the process to move into its second stage.

Even so, it’s time to revisit the unofficial ban on muhurats during this period, says D.K. Soman, astronomer and almanac-maker of the popular Dhavle panchang and Nirnaysagar calendar. “I do not give muhurats in these months, many almanac-makers don’t. This is mainly because we fear public backlash,” he says. “The chaturmaas concept was relevant in agrarian societies without modern systems of transport and communication. People had to tend to their fields, they could not travel by foot from one village to another in rain for weddings...these reasons aren’t valid now. We need to iron out such concepts and revisit almanac-making for our times.”

Ironing out differences is easier said than done. Hindu almanacs follow the uni-solar system (unlike the Muslim calendar, which is based on the lunar system), but the uniformity ends here. North Indian almanacs draw up months starting from full moon day, while those in central India start a new month from the new moon day, and many in south India accept the Sun’s entry into a zodiac sign as the start of that month. North Indian almanacs follow the Vikram Samvat with Diwali as the start of a new year while others follow Shalivahan Shaak in spring as new year. “In Gujarat and parts of north India dominated by the trader community, wedding muhurats are at night; this is unthinkable in Maharashtra and south India. This isn’t religion, it is tradition and convention. Trader communities preferred to do business during the day and celebrate events at night, so it became the norm,” points out Soman.

The two-day conference, preceded by discussions with fellow almanac-makers in Gujarat, was driven by a mix of science, religion and convenience. “We wanted to bring together the sciences of astronomy and almanac-making. Almanacs have a religious basis, but they should also offer scientific reasoning. It’s all there in Hindu dharma, our attempt is to bring it all together,” says Lele. Some pandits in Kolhapur offer muhurats during chaturmaas, and there are takers, he adds. The Shankaracharya is planning an all-India almanac-makers’ conference in December this year. A uniform Hindu almanac may be unacceptable, even undesirable, because almanacs must account for seasonal variations, regional disparities and local traditions, but it may be worthwhile to unify key elements. The process may take up to two years but a beginning has been made, fittingly in Kolhapur, the seat of social reform in Maharashtra.

Katapadi, 5 June 20110: “Temple sculpture and art has been immortalised in Hindu temples by the Vishwakarma Community”, said Shree Vishwatheertha Swamiji, the chief pontiff of the Udupi Pejawar Mutt. He was speaking on the occasion of the Pattabhisheka (coronation) ceremony of Katapadi Shrimat Anegundi Samsthana Belagutthi Mutt Shree Kalahastendra Saraswati Mahaswamiji on Friday, 4th june 2010 in the gathering of the ‘sants’ (santa sabhe) at Shree Nagadharmendra Swami Sabhavedike. Shree Kalahastendra Saraswati Swamiji is the religious head of the entire Vishwakarma community in India.